Books:

Discovered! 505
Odd Enterprises

Hidden Dollars

How to Make
Money at Home

Small Business
of Your Own

You Can Own
a Business

But for a great many, need and necessity are also motives of great importance. Yet many are bewildered by the scene of economic activity, and so unacquainted with the business world that they do not know what they should do to earn extra money. As a result they listen to some of the futile and unsound appeals made, and take up something they are unfitted for, or which has no prospect of providing them with any real, steady results.

One of the most common of such traps for the unwary is the invitation to sell a type of goods which has no real price, quality or use appeal, and which, frankly, is intended to be sold by the victims to their circle of friends mostly on a friendship appeal alone. When that circle is canvassed the sales come to an abrupt end; but this limited "friendship sale" is what the shrewd seller banks on, and he cares little that severe disappointment awaits the hopeful agent. There is always someone else to be found to sell to his friends. This is basically unsound, and even unethical. What the honest earner is looking for is not a scheme to "rope in" his friends to buy for his sake, and then do a "fade-out", but a plan that can produce steady earning on merit.

Such a "proposition" is not easy to find, or to operate. It takes thought, energy, discrimination, personality, persistence, and other qualities to make anything a success—even something expected to earn a little extra money. Dollars never did grow on trees, and never will. This is a keen commercial age, and the age of the "medicine fakir" who sold "snake oil" or "rheumatism belts" worth half a dime, for a dollar, is pretty well crowded out. The public's sense of values is more sharpened, and business is alert in catering to every need.

If you're looking to earn extra money, therefore, the place to find the opportunities is in the unexpected, neglected, overlooked places, with a bright idea, product or service which fits consumer need.

Take time to make your selection. Look yourself over—your situation, your capabilities, your location—very realistically, and don't use any "fantasy." Go over your capabilities with a pair of open eyes, and neither under-rate nor over-rate yourself. You are probably a lot better at selling something than you think; but if you consider yourself an invincible, irresistible, polished salesperson you are probably wrong. If you believe you are a musical, literary, or artistic prodigy, or near-prodigy, forget it. The world of all art is very exceptionally difficult; but not entirely impossible if you will make a cool appraisal of yourself and will be content with small success, small earning. Be practical, down-to-earth!

Energy and push may actually take you further than talent in many fields. Just as the best newspaper reporter admits he is after all, "a leg man"—his feet being his best asset or next-best asset—so you may have to realize that hard work in itself is the best money maker. The good salesman, for example, who plugs along, door-to-door, trying to sell a household device, on a hot or rainy day; who has ten doors slammed in his face, one after the other, doesn't lose his nerve, because he knows that if he keeps working the "law of averages" it will work for him. In other words, he knows that the law of "chances" has in the past proved to him that if he makes 25 calls without discouragement or loss of enthusiasm, one or more is always sure to turn out to be a prospect. So he calmly plods along, knowing that even if for two days straight everybody slams the door on him, chances are that on the third or fourth day three people in a row will come through as prospects. The week will thus end up with his usual average, if he keeps on going and doesn't reduce the number and zest of his calls.

The same psychology holds true of the person who works out an original plan to make extra money. He will encounter much "resistance," indifference, failure, but if he has been rightly advised, done the intelligent analysis and the right stuff is in him, he will first of all know beforehand, by trial and test, what his "proposition can and will do on the average. And, second, he will not give up easily after his analysis and test, but give it a thorough whirl, with eyes and ears wide open to study how he may improve its effectiveness and his operation. He did not go into the proposition or plan until he had studied it well, from all angles, and tried it out—so he isn't going to "turn tail" and quit at the first cold wind.

To do any extra money earning, the very important first things are value, "consumer acceptance", appeal, uniqueness, desirability, fitness, usefulness. You may have the "brightest idea" in ten years, but if people can't use it, won't pay money for it, won't "go" for it, then it really isn't quite so "bright" as you thought. Also, if they can get its equivalent more cheaply, it isn't hopeful. Also, if it will take too much, too long an argument to persuade them, it isn't practical. You can't afford to take time to "re-educate" a person by a long hour's argument, in order to convince him and thus make a mere dime of profit. Speed of "turnover" is one of the great keys to successful business operation. "Time is money"—you'll have to trade your hours for dollars of profit, at the very least.

And if your plan or proposition collapses and does not bring you a return, through no fault of your own of planning, or energetic action, or quality—price ratio, then you must be competent enough to promptly recognize and admit failure, without shame or high blood pressure; and begin again to analyze and locate a plan for earning. Few people are so clever or so lucky as to hit upon the very best thing at a first try. But be sure that you're not just seeking change for change's sake, or because of unrealistic expectation of earning. There are no more "gold" mines—(in fact very few of the thousands of gold mines ever gave the owner as good a return as a first-class plumber earns today!) Some ways of earning extra money are poorly fitted for some people, or the location or the time isn't right. But don't be too swift in your judgment. It may be a plan that needs slow coddling toward success; that is how many a big business started. You must carefully figure out the situation by keen observation, thinking, testing.

How does one go about "testing" a plan? It is really a fairly simple thing to do; but you must do it painstakingly. Select, most carefully, 25 thoroughly typical customers of the kind you will need to sell to. Exclude all relatives and friends of yours from this list; see to it that the list includes all the types of people you'll sell to, both in age, location, wealth, sex, culture and education, etc. Then work out a very competent sales talk such as you have reason to know they would believe and respond to, and then call on the 25 and do a real good job of selling.

After this is done, sit down and analyze your results. Classify the responses. How many didn't want to hear your sales talk at all? How many bought? How many promised to consider? How many made this, how many that objection? How many kicked about price? How many were enthusiastic? Now multiply these figures by four, for each classification.

You have, then, real "percentage" figures as to what you can expect of your further efforts. Such and such a percent will buy; (so many in 100). Such-and-such a percent will be further prospects after the first call. And so forth.

With such figures you will be able to plot your needed action; maybe the objection on price is strong, and you will have to re-price.

Now you are operating with "business research "—brains, like the big companies. And you will succeed, because you are "objective" and "hard-headed".

Don't despise "ordinary" things to sell. In America fortunes are made on humble, ordinary things—from pen-wipers and chewing gum to safety pins and shoe laces. Keep your thinking close to earth—close to human needs of the simplest kind. But of course also goods and services of the more odd type—the "wish-I'd-thought-of-that" kind.

Don't fail to think originally. Don't toss away a good idea because you have a diffident personality and have a habit of distrusting your own thoughts and ideas. Money-making ideas lurk in the craziest comers of life-in the most unexpected places. A business girl who had to quit working in offices because of poor health, conceived the idea that people in her semi-suburban section needed some baby-sitting, so she organized a little baby sitting neighborhood business. Another girl in a similar situation organized a daily children's story circle; entrance fee 25 cents. For this she told the children stories for one hour. At last accounts she had three story hours per day with 20 or 40 children in each.

A 17 year old boy in the same neighborhood found that the local newsdealers did not deliver Sunday papers to apartments, so he organized a reliable, all-weather, early-bird delivery plan, and now uses a jeep and is about to earn his college tuition by operating a newsstand. An ordinary farm-hand with some crude artistic learnings, shaped up some Christmas wreaths with art trimming, took a truck load to town and sold every one before the day was out. Now he sells various foliage and wreath items all year round. It's a business now, after four years of "extra" money after a regular day's work.

No matter what kind of ability you have, examine it, study its possibilities, ask for advice, test and try out ideas—you may have a basis for extra money earning. Every day one hears of some other idea that clicks—this is a day of extra earning, bright ideas, energetic action, success story repeated a thousand times. Why not let it be your story?